National Critical Care and Trauma Response Center

The Commonwealth funds the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) at the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) to maintain a state of readiness for major national health incident and the implementation of strategic priorities.

This initiative significantly increases the capacity for an effective health response to an emergency in our northern region, and to emergencies involving significant casualties. The NCCTRC remains a focused northern hub of research and education ensuring the Australians living overseas, and our regional neighbours, will have greater access to high quality eveidence-based medical and hospital care in the event of an emergency.

The NCCTRC has responded successfully to a series of emergencies in the period 2005 to 2010. These include the second Bali bombings, the East Timor casualties in 2006, the Yogyakarta aviation disaster in March 2007, and the East Timorese Presidential assassination attempt in 2008. The NCCTRC also played a key role in the deployment of AUSMATs in response to the floods in Pakistan in 2010. Further information is available from the NCCTRC website.

Public Health Information Line

The Public Health Information Line (PHIL) was established in response to the SARS outbreak in 2004. Since that time its role has evolved, and it now provides a point of contact for questions and information from the public on relevant emerging threats and hot issues at the time.

PHIL can be used in the event of an incident that requires the provision of public health information to the public.

PHIL operations from 8:30am to 5pm AEST/EADT, Mon to Fri. In the event on an incident, hours of operation can be extended to 24 hours per day, seven days a week with 24 hours notice.